Monday, May 27, 2013

It's probably past due that I've joined the 21st century, so I've created a Twitter accounthttps://twitter.com/GlennGallimoreThis way you can keep up with updates a bit easier.-----Oh, Act 3 is almost done! Just finished retesting the boss battle. All I'm missing really are the intro and outro cards. Totally surprised how easy I'm getting the hang of Construct 2. It's much easier once all the art and code bits are done so you can just concentrate on creating the levels without much hold up.When doing Acts 1 and 2, I was always going back and adding stuff in... probably not a good idea, but Act 2 was done like at the beginning of this year. Most of my time was spent ironing out bugs and collision glitches.... also had that desire to play FFXI Online alot, which can also really borrow alot of free time.Stay tuned! I'm going to make a brief gameplay video once all is said and done before going to Act 4.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

So the cat is out of the bag. The Xbox One has been revealed to be this all-in-one multi device that functions like a television and an ipad in a large black box. Oh, and apparently it's supposed to play games. So which game companies did they showcase? Well if anyone is a die hard Xbox fan, it's hard to get this one wrong. Call of Doggie and EA(Madden, FIFA)... the two gaming giants "bro" gamers glam for announced their entries for next gen, along with a hightly detailed Forza and a Halo TV series by Steven Speilburg, and a deal with the NFL to be able to stream football.Even though the specs on it are pretty beefy, all I saw was wasted potential. Seems Microsoft is trying to do what Wii did, move away from it's core demographic and compete with the likes of Apple, Direct TV, and DISH. Though Wii didn't go that far, but they were trying to capture a new and broader audience... and succeeded. Microsoft seems adamant on taking that audience and continuing this trend playing on consumer ignorance. (After all, that's American Corporate business for ya!) I could wait for E3 and see if there are any games I'd like to play but truth be told... I think I'm going to sit this one out.If people like this system for all it's offering, that's fine. More power to them... but don't be surprised if the focus was more on adding apps and niches. Xbox has been surviving on third party support for it's entirety. It has tried to win over audiences, but it was for the bottom dollar. Their focus is elsewhere now, so let them do their thing.I'm probably going to end up with a PS4, and now the Wii U is looking way more interesting too. Thing is, I love some third party titles. I'm a dead sucker for Fallout and Elder Scrolls, with some Saints Row and GTA mixed in for good measure. Metal Gear? You bet! I want to get into FarCry and some Dead Island, and that new Tomb Raider. There is also a new Arkham game coming out!Sadly, I doubt Wii U is getting any of these. As much as I LOVE Smash Bros... Nintendo's first party titles come and go, each Nintendo console I've owned rarely were played. Truth be told, there was a time I nearly gave up gaming. I was a devout Nintendo fanboy back in the day... but the N64's support was mostly all about Pokemon. It was a huge seller, so of course all that focus was going towards those pocket monsters. Mario, Zelda and the like took a long back seat while Pikachu and co literally hogged the spotlight for years to come.

So I reluctantly shifted to Sony's Playstation. First game I bought was Final Fantasy 7. Never got into 6 back in the SNES days because RPGs were still kinda new until I played Earthbound and Super Mario RPG. Well, that game blew my mind! Hell it inspired me to do webcomics ten years ago. Square (to me) won me over, and on top of every awesome FF title, I had other RPGs like Legend of Dragoon and Legend of Mana, Edit: I wanted to add that I also got a chance to play Final Fantasy 4-6 and Chrono Trigger with the anthology collection since at the time on SNES, I wasn't interested in them. with Metal Gear Solid, and a reunion with Castlevania and Mega Man (Original and X). Resident Evil gained a large following too. Even though I was spending time away from Mario and Link... the Playstation and it's near endless supply of fun games kept me a loyal fan for two console generations. PS2 gave me more of what I loved, plus the revival of GTA and DBZ games. My GOD I really took those years for granted. In a sense, I am bold enough to say that Sony and the Playstation might of saved the game industry from another crash. When you think about it, Nintendo was innovative, but selfish and very stubborn. They had a guy at the helm that acted more of a czar. EDIT: Okay, okay, the czar comment was a bit harsh I apologize, but if you look up the history of the Playstation, you'll read what happened between Sony and Nintendo and the result of the fallout. Nintendo basically threw Sony under a bus during the supposed Nintendo CD console release, heck, watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JKAPMh3K9Y

Basically, there was going to be an SNES CD addon, in which Sony would pretty much own licenses to all games, including Nintendo's IP In an attempt to "Fix" the problem, they went to Sony's at then rival Phillips instead (Yeah, you know where this is going). They did make amends, but the SNES CD addon was scrapped anyway, and Sony was left with this new CD tech to create their own console.

I hastily purchased the PS3 because I expected more of the same. Anyone who knows about the early history knows what I'm talking about. PS3 was plagued by terrible ports and a drought of AAA exclusives until Infamous and Uncharted came along. I tried to like God of War, but really hated quicktime events. It's a great game, but sometimes I just want to watch a cutscene... probably the RPGer in me that throws me off. I moved to the Xbox 360 as it seems everyone I know flocked to the console, and so did I. It had superior third party support as it's ports were always top quality. I wasn't too big on FPSes though, but it was okay. I got into Fallout and Saints Row on Xbox, since they ran better on that console at the time.

Oh, as for handhelds... I just never got into them. I missed out on some real good games, but handhelds were just never my thing. Didn't have the time or the reason to own one since the Gameboy. Now, we're at the same crossroads again, and I have a feeling history may repeat itself. Nintendo is really trying to win over third party. They're still repairing the damage the N64 and bad business relations with other companies did. They're even catering to Indie developers, which is something they never would of done in the old days. The console may be underpowered compared to the PS4, but I hope the industry wouldn't mind taking a step back and offer some solid titles the newer consoles would get. If not, well they'll survive. I'm looking forward to the new Infamous game and optimistic what Sony and Nintendo have to offer at E3 in a couple weeks. I wish I could just stick with one console, as I'm at the age where my free time is limited and I don't have the cash like I used to to splurge on expensive gaming machines.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Act 3 is an outdoor act. It will have forests, caverns, and water levels, not to mention some twists on the puzzles. This was inspired from a very old Nintendo game called "Wario's Woods". Since Reginald has similarities to Wario, and this game needed an outdoor level, it was a perfect fit! Acts 1 and 2 are a walk in the park compared to this!

Finished three levels so far, won't spoil too much on how many are in there total, but I will gladly show you screenshots!

One of the new enemies. Do you remember those annoying enemies from the Mega Man games that move fast when you land on it's platform? It's basically the same pattern with these.

A propeller plant, you make these things spin in the air to reach heights if wall climbing or red slime jumping wont work.

BEHOLD!! Water physics! I know, I know... been done before. This took the lion share of my weekend trying to figure out and in the end it was a completely different (and simple) procedure to do on Construct 2. And to add a bit of challenge, you can't glide underwater.

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Speaking of Nintendo earlier in this post, I keep up with gaming news as much as I can... afterall this IS my profession right? Anyway, turns out that many players on Youtube are going to lose income to Nintendo after making a deal with Youtube to monetize ads on videos featuring gameplay from their respected IPs.

The short of it is, those people who actually made money doing videos like Let's Play or just informative commentary are going to have to find another source of revenue. I didn't realize they made a decent living doing these types of things.

In a legal respect... yeah, it made sense, but why now? Could Nintendo be desperate since WiiU is experiencing a game drought not seen since... the Wii, N64? Its in a theory of mine that they're basically becoming the Disney of the game industry. Complete control over their properties.

As a supporter of LPers, I'd like to see them continue their work... maybe another host other than Youtube. Screw Attack seems to be always looking for new shows, and Blip TV is gaining some popularity in video hosting if you don't mind the longer ad space. If anyone affect by Nintendo is reading this, I urge you to at least check these places out. Maybe you can host a website that is unaffected by this... though a cease and desist letter isn't too far off the Big N's idea.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Also, revision V.3 is out
already. Still found some collision bugs which I'm ironing out, I keep
forgetting that this is quite the undertaking for one person, but It's
not bothering me in the least.

You'll notice the info bubbles changed. Instead of having to whip the bubbles, you simply run into them and the info appears until you move away from it. Simple and clean, wish I did this in the first place... oh well, this is a learning experience! Enjoy!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Hi ho, how you like the new layout, I made the logo myself. It's sort of a stamp like what Nintendo uses on everything. It's also a small memory to the old Konami logo... but WITH FIRE!!Demo V.3 is about complete. This will be my final revision, fixed some more collision issues and added some small puzzles to a few levels.This will introduce the switch family, four colored floor buttons that have unique traits.

RED = one time onlyBLUE = timedYELLOW = requires a weight of some kindGREEN = dispenses a weight cube

There are also wind fans that propel you in directions as you glide on them, this was a neat concept that I've managed to get working pretty quickly. The best part however, is that I made pushing blocks available on the platform format in Construct 2. As of right now, you can't mesh Physics and Platform behaviors, so I came with a solution that I'm quite proud of!

My next task is to make a trailer, a real trailer for this game. My PC lacks the extra slot for a capture card, so I might have to enlist someone's help on this. Just a small vid of random gameplay footage.I can add your name to the credits as a token of my appreciation.